Which do you like-- Portillo or Las Lenas?

[Shredhead]

Dewey:

It's more like the end of November. But they have little, if any snowmaking. I wouldn't take the risk of prebooking that time period much in advance. You can always book SA at the last minute, often cheaper than in advance.

[snowsprite]

^^bump^^
After much deliberation, I have finally decided to go with Valle Nevado for 8/27-9/4. I'm booking my flight this week on Frequent Flyer miles. Anyone thinking about being in VN around this time let me know so we can meet up for a few turns!

If you want to get the package we are going with I posted the info on the Hook Up board. Just PM me if interested.

Anyone else putting SA plans together now? Or am I the only overenthusiastic kook?


Sprite

[Squirrel99]

Originally posted by snowsprite
^^bump^^
After much deliberation, I have finally decided to go with Valle Nevado for 8/27-9/4. Anyone else putting SA plans together now? Or am I the only overenthusiastic kook?


Sprite

Sorry, but this ship is sailing to Lenas. Similar time frame- plans to be finalized in the next week for 9/3 - 9/18. and 60+cm of snow forecasted on Friday- at least by the kind folks at snow-forecast.com

[snorkeldeep]

im going to LL as well.. not sure time wise yet. id love to find some spanish speaking maggots in the NE area to travel with..

[snowsprite]

snorkeldeep...I'm sure they will come out of the woodwork in the next few months. That's what happened last summer. Round about June people were like "ARGHH!!! I can't take it--I'm going to S. America!" So I'm sure you will find several travel companions.

I thought about LL...and still want to go there someday...but for my first foray down to SA I'm going to stick w/ Valle Nevado. I think the travel time is what cinched it for me. When I get a little more vacation time I think it won't matter as much. But with a 17 hr flight I didn't feel like tacking on a 12 hr bus trip or an additional hopper flight to Mendoza.

LL has better snow and steeps though. Either way...SA in late summer is just what the doctor ordered for the ski jones!

Sprite

[Anxious Mo-Fo]

Originally posted by snowsprite

After much deliberation, I have finally decided to go with Valle Nevado for 8/27-9/4. I'm booking my flight this week on Frequent Flyer miles.

How many FF miles does it take to fly there (and from which U.S. city to which S.A. city)?

[snowsprite]

Anxious,
Flying out of NYC and landing in Santiago, Delta is going to run me 50K per round trip ticket. American Airlines people will fare better...they are 40K per round trip ticket. The cool thing is I get to fly out of Westchester airport. That's only 20 min away, a lot better than JFK/LGA. From what I understand at this time both Delta and American have a fair amount of frequent flyer seats available for late August.

Re: freakin' flyer miles (as my kid calls them)...I've started charging just about everything on Amex, and pay all the bills I can on it. Then we just pay off the balance very month. You can rake up an amazing amount of miles if you do this. I'm swimming in miles lately. I've even convinced my sister to charge her son's wedding on my card. She's a nice sis and has agreed to do this. Woo-hoo--beaucoup more miles are coming!

I hope you have enough miles socked away to head south.
Sprite

[Mtn Man]

Would you suggest flying out Friday night so you get there Sat noonish? When do people usually fly out and back? Just want to maximize my time out there. Can you actually ski on Sat and then hit the airport? Packing in the parking lot after skiing and heading to the airport has happened a few times before

B)

[Squirrel99]

Originally posted by Mtn Man
Would you suggest flying out Friday night so you get there Sat noonish? When do people usually fly out and back? Just want to maximize my time out there. Can you actually ski on Sat and then hit the airport? Packing in the parking lot after skiing and heading to the airport has happened a few times before

B)

If you are going to Las Lenas- they only operate Sat-Sat stays right now so you have to plan to sandwich a night inbetween in either Buenos Aires or Mendoza. I usually take the Thursday night connecting flight on Delta through Atlanta, arrive Mendoza on Friday (stay at Damajuana Hostel or Kick down for the Hyatt)
Have to buy bus tix then right away for the next morning bus to San Rafeal/Las Lenas. This way you get into LL by 12-1pm on Saturday- lifts are open until 5pm so you can still git sum turns.
*I'll be on the Thursday 9/2 American Flight from Dallas this year, thanks to the lower 40,000 FF mileage requirement- PLUS added bonus is this includes the Mendoza portion since AA is hooked up with LanChile. I speak decent Spanish, but not fluent.

Not sure on the Valle Nevado travel time. Snowsprite- too bad we can't meet up- I'd like to check out Valle and Termas someday.

[Snow Dog]

Originally posted by snowsprite
^^bump^^
After much deliberation, I have finally decided to go with Valle Nevado for 8/27-9/4. I'm booking my flight this week on Frequent Flyer miles. Anyone thinking about being in VN around this time let me know so we can meet up for a few turns!

If you want to get the package we are going with I posted the info on the Hook Up board. Just PM me if interested.

Anyone else putting SA plans together now? Or am I the only overenthusiastic kook?


Sprite

So are you staying on the mountain or in Santiago? It's a clean modern city worth a few days of browsing.

[PNWbrit]

Portillo 8/14 until 8/21

Very interested to see how it will compare with our Las Lenas trip last year.

It's been super easy to arrange through skiportillo.com and travel is a no brainer compared to Argentina.

[basom]

Originally posted by Squirrel99
If you are going to Las Lenas- they only operate Sat-Sat stays right now so you have to plan to sandwich a night inbetween in either Buenos Aires or Mendoza. I usually take the Thursday night connecting flight on Delta through Atlanta, arrive Mendoza on Friday (stay at Damajuana Hostel or Kick down for the Hyatt)
Have to buy bus tix then right away for the next morning bus to San Rafeal/Las Lenas. This way you get into LL by 12-1pm on Saturday- lifts are open until 5pm so you can still git sum turns.

there is also a midnight bus from mendoza to SR/LL that will get you into LL well before the lifts open on saturday A.M.

just ask noodles how fun mendoza is and you will for sure want to spend at least one night there, depending on how long it takes for you to get your passport stolen

[Squirrel99]

True- I forgot about that bus. Guess it's 'cause I was three sheets to the wind at Apoteco night club with 300+ raging hot argentines

But I'd definitely recommend the Thursday night flight from either Atlanta, Dallas, or Miami. I've always met others heading to LL, Portillo, VN, etc...

[snowsprite]

Originally posted by Snow Dog
So are you staying on the mountain or in Santiago? It's a clean modern city worth a few days of browsing.

Snow Dog, I'm staying on the mountain but we have one day and one night in Santiago b/c I'm taking a Sunday instead of Saturday flight. It will be fun to check out Santiago! I will probably find a hotel relatively close to the airport so it's easy to catch the flight the next day.
Sprite

[Squirrel99]

Sprite,
Check the Valle Nevado snow report at
http://www.snow-forecast.com

I think you'll like what you see if click on the top station 3 day forecast

[telebear]

If you are going to make the trip down to Chile, I would highly recommend heading to Portillo for at least a few days. As far as on and off piste experiece, it doesn't get much better. Though they don't really like it, you can also do some haggling with Portillo and stay less than a week if there is availability, they probably wont book in far in adaance but we met several groups down there that were only there for 4 or 3 days and some who extended their stay for part of the next week.

I was down in Chile for 15 days skiing in 2002 with two buddies, a week in Portillo and then rented a car for what was initially planned as few days at the Santiago resorts (Valle Nevado, La Parva, El Colorado but turned into a week since the only access road was wiped out by a landslide and Chilean road crews dont move too fast. I would liken the Santiago area resorts to a "Vail-like" experience (minus the back bowl terrain) expensive, crowded and lacking 'vibe'. Definitely more of a party scene though. Portillo, on the other hand, is very laid-back and luxurious in a rustic, retro-cool kind of way, like Goldminer’s Daughter at Alta.

My week at Portillo was probably one of the coolest, and definitely the most unique, skiing experience I've ever had and I've skied pretty much all over Europe, N. America and New Zealand. There's just something incredibly cool about spending a week in a grand old hotel with 400 like-minded skiing fanatics who get a beautiful mountain all to themselves. You WILL come away with some new friends.

As far as costs, at Portillo, all three of us stayed in a lakeview room with a cot added. Don’t take the prices on the website as writ in stone. We were able to negotiate a lower rate. I think all-in (including our VERY sizable bar bill and airport transfers) it came to right around $1200 per person for the week. I think going in they wanted $1600 pp and we talked them down to $1000. You can save some by staying in the Octagon lodge or Inca lodge, which are across the parking lot. If you stay in the Inca realize that you have to eat in the cafeteria where employees eat and we were told the food was terrible. IMHO, it is worth a few hundred more to stay in the Octagon. You get a private bathroom and get eat in the dining room since that is one of the great experiences of Portillo. (Our table was next to Herman Maier’s and the Austrian Ski team!!). $1200 for an all inclusive ski week is a pretty good deal in my book.

At VN you definately feel much more of the corporate resort atmosphere. We stayed in a hostel our first night in super divey hostel in Farellones since we drove up really late (super sketch drive btw). We were only planning to stay one more night, when the landslide hit taking out the access road. After much panicing since our flights were out that night, my buddy took a helicopter down to santiago; leaving me to take back the now overdue car and ski for a few days since I wasnt in a rush to get home.
Trapped in VN, I tried to bargain unfortunately the people at VN were not really sympathetic at all and the cheapest room goes for like $200/night... so i stayed there one night. What a mistake. It was niceand all, but the crowd was mostly Chilean yuppies and the food sucked. The next couple nights I went stayed at the Posada de Farellones( a hostel cum ski lodge for little less than $100/night, which I would recommend to anyone) and skied La Parva and El Colorado the next couple days until they finally got the road clear.

Sorry for the long-winded response… JONG me if you wish. Can’t wait to get back down there, wont’ be in the cards this summer though. PM me if you want to check out some more pictures or more info.

[snowsprite]

Well, that was a very helpful post but...JONG!

Thanks for the insight, it's always good to get input from people who have been there. One question about Portillo though: I keep hearing from people that Portillo is rather "small" for an entire week's skiing. Do you agree?

I would still love to check it out, but I don't think it's feasible to mix it up between resorts this time around. We're paying for the week up front in order to get a better rate ($200/night--jeez, can't afford to go a la carte w/ those rates!!) Maybe our next time down we will do that though--meaning move around among resorts--once we get a feel for the area.

Portillo ski weeks are not that expensive, but VN is definitely cheaper. I'm looking at rates ranging from $750-$850 (depending on type of room, for double occupancy, how many book for the trip) for an all-inclusive ski week (lodging/lifts/meals) in a first class standard hotel. That's a few hundred less than the posted prices on their site for the time period we're going. And it's less than Portillo. But Portillo still sounds very cool, and it's on my "must-see" list.

I'm hoping to get down there one summer for 2 weeks and do a Portillo-Las Lenas combo thing and then fly to Easter Island for a 3 day thing. First I need to get a raise and some more vacation time though!

Sprite

[shamrockpow]

Originally posted by snowsprite
Well, that was a very helpful post but...JONG!

Thanks for the insight, it's always good to get input from people who have been there. One question about Portillo though: I keep hearing from people that Portillo is rather "small" for an entire week's skiing. Do you agree?

I would still love to check it out, but I don't think it's feasible to mix it up between resorts this time around. We're paying for the week up front in order to get a better rate ($200/night--jeez, can't afford to go a la carte w/ those rates!!) Maybe our next time down we will do that though--meaning move around among resorts--once we get a feel for the area.

Portillo ski weeks are not that expensive, but VN is definitely cheaper. I'm looking at rates ranging from $750-$850 (depending on type of room, for double occupancy, how many book for the trip) for an all-inclusive ski week (lodging/lifts/meals) in a first class standard hotel. That's a few hundred less than the posted prices on their site for the time period we're going. And it's less than Portillo. But Portillo still sounds very cool, and it's on my "must-see" list.

I'm hoping to get down there one summer for 2 weeks and do a Portillo-Las Lenas combo thing and then fly to Easter Island for a 3 day thing. First I need to get a raise and some more vacation time though!

Sprite

Yeah, I was gonna say that $200/night sounds way expensive for VN unless they were 99% prebooked. Also the Chilean yuppies comment really seems to come out of nowhere since last year 70% of all the people that stayed at the hotels (not including the condos) were from Brazil, not Chile. I will say that you can compare it to Vail pretty easily, it doesn't have any really challenging in-bounds terrain, but they do have a ton of lift serviced BC opportunities.

Sprite, I don't know what type of skier/group you have, but I would reccomend hiring a guide (or finding someone that knows the VN BC) for 1 day after you've been there 2 days, gotten acclimated, etc. The hotels are pretty high so you'll want to get your bearings on days 1-2. If you really want to take full advantage of the BC opportunities I'd buy a Colorado add on for skiing road shots/the front side, then a La Parva add on for days where you can make easier laps using VN's lift system as well to ski the "back bowl".

If you have the cheaper package I'm assuming you're at the third hotel back. They have the bar/club on the main level so it'll definitely be a good time. And the food at most of the restaurants is excellent. I got to eat at the Italian restaurant a bunch since the guy I was living with was the maitrede (SP?) over there. Great antipasta buffet. I heard the fondue place was good too.

One other thing for VN. Try to get them to arrange transportation for you, unless you plan on having a car. It's just a clusterfuck to get up to the area from the mountain, even if you speak spanish. They use the "ayudante" system, so even if you agree on a price w/someone the driver can still say fuck you, I'm not taking you for less than $xx, which is a real bitch if you've got all your ski stuff and you've already walked to the parking lot...

[telebear]

Originally posted by snowsprite
One question about Portillo though: I keep hearing from people that Portillo is rather "small" for an entire week's skiing. Do you agree?

It really depends. If you get lucky and get some fresh snow. Then there is more than enough terrain for nearly any ability, especially if you are willing to poke around a bit. If you stay on piste the whole time, pretty much all the Chilean resorts can get old after a week. Most South Americans dont seem to venture as far off piste, so powder will last you a week or so. There is a lot of great terrain accessible with only a short skin if its scratchy.

If you plan to head off piste heed shamrock's advise and consult someone who knows what they are doing since the Chilean snowpak is notoriusly fickle. We had planned to do some touring but we got dumped on (1.8 meters) and the avy danger down there is no joke, Frank (Portillo's snow safety director and guide at CPG) can definately give some great touring options.

Shamrock... yeah I overpayed. I was trapped there and couldn't get down because the access road was wiped out. You would think they would help a brother out, but no dice. Of the Santiago resorts, I preferred La Parva... There are some nice chutes there that are an easy hike.

[snowsprite]

Shamrock, I hope to get everyone to pitch in and get a guide. I don't want to end up staring down some cliff, trapped in an avy, or hiking 5 hrs back to the base! This WILL happen to me as I was born without a sense of direction..lol!

You're talking about hotel transport, right? From what I understand...the hotels are close enough to walk to the lifts. Am I wrong?

We are looking at Puerta del Sol hotel. Tres Puntas is still an option too (it's so close to "Tres Putas"...lol!) and it's much cheaper. But I hear Puerta del Sol is worth the little extra cost.
Sprite

Originally posted by shamrockpow
Sprite, I don't know what type of skier/group you have, but I would reccomend hiring a guide (or finding someone that knows the VN BC) for 1 day after you've been there 2 days, gotten acclimated, etc. The hotels are pretty high so you'll want to get your bearings on days 1-2. If you really want to take full advantage of the BC opportunities I'd buy a Colorado add on for skiing road shots/the front side, then a La Parva add on for days where you can make easier laps using VN's lift system as well to ski the "back bowl".

One other thing for VN. Try to get them to arrange transportation for you, unless you plan on having a car. It's just a clusterfuck to get up to the area from the mountain, even if you speak spanish. They use the "ayudante" system, so even if you agree on a price w/someone the driver can still say fuck you, I'm not taking you for less than $xx, which is a real bitch if you've got all your ski stuff and you've already walked to the parking lot...

[Poyeboy]

Originally posted by snowsprite
Shamrock, I hope to get everyone to pitch in and get a guide. I don't want to end up staring down some cliff, trapped in an avy, or hiking 5 hrs back to the base!Sprite

::giggle::

[snowsprite]

LMAO is more like it! Did ya get the part that I have no sense of direction?

And in case I wasn't clear on this before peeples...I am a complete gaper who snowplows down the moguls at Sugarbush and must stay on the groomers unless BobMc is there to talk me down!

:::snicker:::

Sprite

[Poyeboy]

Originally posted by snowsprite
LMAO is more like it! Did ya get the part that I have no sense of direction?

And in case I wasn't clear on this before peeples...I am a complete gaper who snowplows down the moguls at Sugarbush and must stay on the groomers unless BobMc is there to talk me down!

:::snicker:::

Sprite

lol...TMI....just owed you a few ::giggles:: ...valium is over by the faucet

[snowsprite]

valium...wtf! Have you been following me again?


:::giggle:::

Sprite

[Poyeboy]

Originally posted by snowsprite
valium...wtf! Have you been following me again?


:::giggle:::

Sprite

lol...who's reading who? Pure coincidence I'm sure...just sent you a PM and noticed your homepage.